Franklin Marina Boat Basin Enhancements and Channel Widening

Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, Virginia

MDG served as the Prime Consultant for this project and contracted with the civil, plumbing and electrical engineers to complete the overall design. The boat basin consists of a 40,000 square foot interior harbor connected to the York River by a 600 foot long channel. The primary focus of the project was to modify the existing channel and harbor to accommodate a new 120 foot long research vessel.

The project included widening the channel and increasing the depth by five feet. This required significant modifications to 600 linear feet of existing bulkhead. A tieback and waler system was designed for the existing cantilever sheet pile bulkhead to accommodate the additional depth. 600 linear feet of new bulkhead was designed for the opposing bank in order to flatten the mudline of the channel at the lower depth.

The Basin Improvements included deepening the majority of the basin to twelve foot in depth, modifying 500 linear feet of bulkhead to accommodate the increased depth, redesigning the small boat slips to include both fixed and floating docks, designing a new boat ramp and providing mooring structures for a new research vessel.